Why is jet fuel not measured in volume?

Jet fuel is measured in pounds because the volume of the fuel can change based on temperature, whether it’s Jet A, JP-4, etc. This is especially critical at high altitudes where the temperature will be minus-40 to minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit. Further, fuel is burned by mass, not by volume.

Are airplanes more fuel efficient than cars?

Commercial jets have been more fuel efficient per person per mile than passenger cars for over a decade. In 1970, Sivak reports, it took 10,185 BTUs to move a person a mile in an airplane, compared with 5,067 BTUs to move a person a mile in a car—making flying twice as energy intensive as driving.

How much fuel does a plane use compared to a car?

In other words, the plane is getting 100 miles per gallon per person! The typical car gets about 25 miles per gallon, so the 747 is much better than a car carrying one person, and compares favorably even if there are four people in the car.

How many liters of fuel does a plane use?

The plane will consume 2,508 litres of fuel per hour. An Airbus A321neo fuel capacity of 32,940 litre. If an Airbus A321neo burns 0.683 litre per second, Boeing 747 uses approximately 4 litres every second, which translates to 240 litres per minute and 14,400 litre per hour.

Why do we use units of volume for aircraft fuel?

Most countries except the USA use metric units for meteorological reports. In theory, fuel should be measured by mass as the amount of thermal energy in one unit of fuel relates directly to its mass. Unfortunately, you cannot weigh fuel when an aircraft is airborne, so the alternative is to measure its volume.

Why aircraft fuel is measured in kg?

Once the fuel enters the airplane, however, all talk of fuel is in kilograms (or pounds). This is because a very important component of airplane stability and control is weight and center of gravity (CG). As fuel gets consumed during a flight, the total weight of the fuel on the plane goes on reducing.

Why are airplanes faster than cars?

A: Airplanes move faster than cars and other vehicles because they have ways of producing a greater amount of thrust. Airplanes can create thrust with propellers, jet engines, and even rocket engines, whereas most cars can only produce thrust by a standard piston engine.

Why are airplanes better than cars?

Better use of time in the air: Not only does air travel often result in a shorter total travel time, but the time in the air can be used more productively than in the car. For example, you can’t really nap and drive, and even if you are the passenger it is harder to get any sort of work done in a car than on a plane.

How much fuel does a 747 hold in gallons?

Let’s start with a look at the most famous of jets, the Boeing 747. The Boeing website states that this model, with a gas tank capacity of 63,500 gallons, may burn five gallons of jet fuel per mile of flight. A 4,000-mile flight, then, requires 20,000 gallons of fuel.

Why do planes store fuel in wings?

On passenger planes, fuel tanks are often integrated into the wings, and when there are also tanks inside the body of the aircraft, the wing tanks are used preferentially. The placement reduces the stress on the wings during takeoff and flight, by putting the heavy fuel directly inside the source of lift.

Should airliners indicate fuel capacity by volume in liters?

If airliners would indicate fuel by volume in liters it would first of all be a badly chosen unit to stand for available energy and second it would cause a panic with the pilots when they would discover once in cold cruise that they have up to 8 percent less fuel than planned due to the contraction.

How do you calculate the weight of fuel onboard an airplane?

And since weight cannot be in litres or gallons so we multiply the volume of fuel by its specific gravity which gives us the weight of the fuel onboard. Knowing the total weight onboard is important because their are limitations to the maximum weight an airplane can lift because of structutral and performance limitations.

Why is the weight of the fuel in an aircraft important?

In aviation you are constantly considering the weight of the aircraft when you are figuring performance, and weight and balance. Since the fuel is in the aircraft you do not care how big it is but how much it weights. You do need to convert to volume when you ask someone to add fuel since their metering system is in volume.

How do you convert pounds of jet fuel to gallons?

Here are three easy steps to convert jet fuel from pounds to gallons in your head. Take the total weight of the fuel and drop the last zero. Divide that number in half. Add those two numbers together! That’s it. For example: How many US gallons are in 8,000 lbs. of jet fuel?